It Is Well With My Soul 7/6/2021 - I remember the first time I sang the song “It Is Well With My Soul” as an adult. I sang it on a Sunday at church after a teenager that attended there passed away. He had been in a car accident and had died due to the injuries he sustained. I didn’t know him well, but it still affected me. My husband and I were leading a college age group at the time that his older brother attended. We knew his parents because they were very active in many areas in the church... Read more
Hope 6/30/2021 - Hope is what makes us look forward to a new day. We hope that this new diet will finally help us to lose those pounds. We hope that a new outfit will make someone notice us. We hope that our social media post will get lots of “likes” so we can feel accepted. We hope we are included in social events that we don’t even really want to attend just so we don’t feel rejection. And we certainly hope that Google will tell us not to worry about those weird symptoms we’ve been experiencing! The problem with this kind of hope is that, in every single instance, it is mixed with doubt. We hope for something better, but there is always at least a grain of doubt that it will actually happen. Our experiences mostly prove that we’ll be disappointed. Yet, hope wakes us up again tomorrow... Read more
Loving The Unlovable 6/23/2021 - We all have an unlovable person in our lives. You know the one. The person that always gets under your skin. It is the person that when you see them, you inwardly cringe and tell your face it better behave and not betray your inner emotions. It’s that person that constantly challenges you not to mutter un-Christ like words under your breath. The one, that despite hyping yourself up mentally to have a good attitude like a football player on game day, you still walk away from that person feeling discouraged, angry, and maybe even hurt. You come away from them feeling extremely challenged to think gracious and Godly thoughts toward them... Read more
Coffee Mugs & Context Clues 6/16/2021 - Each day’s reading starts off with a prayer that I really appreciate. I make the same five requests of God each day. Supplication number four is, “God, correct any lies I believe about you or anything I misunderstand.” From the onset, this has really resonated with me. It has also prompted me to pay more attention to the pretty pictures with clipped verses I’ve always loved to share on my social media pages. In an effort to just offer an encouraging word, I might be selling a verse short by not sharing more of the verse or offering some context... Read more
Words Matter 6/9/2021 - Buzzfeed quizzes are my guilty pleasure. My most recent was “The Pixar characters you choose will reveal what you should order for dinner tonight.” I’m here for all of it! While Buzzfeed claims they can tell me my summer aesthetic or what member of the Kardashian family I am, they don’t have a quiz that can tell me what person from the Bible I am! No, this isn’t a Kingdom issue, but Podcasters I listen to know theirs, and I’m a follower! I’m not Jacob, I’m much too weak to wrestle with Jesus. I’m not Esther, I’m not brave enough for such a time as this. I’m not confident enough to refer to myself as “the one that Jesus loved,” like John. I am Elihu! And here’s why... Read more